Timor-Leste's first big land law, promulgated in 2003, passed ownership of property previously controlled by the Portuguese and the Indonesians to the new state. But exactly which tracts of land this law applied to remains an unsettlingly open question.

When residents of Dili voted to elect a new President five years ago, more than a hundred thousand displaced people were scattered around the East Timorese capital in tent camps and gangs of youths exorcised their angst in the street. The scene this year reflected a very different mood.

East Timor's resistance leaders were educated in Portuguese and promoted it as the language of the resistance to underline the historical and cultural differences between the island nation and Indonesia as well as to avoid infighting. Today, many of the practical consequences of the Portuguese language's prominent status in East Timor remain troublesome.

A new bill allowing more diversified investments by Timor-Leste's multi-billion dollar oil and natural gas sovereign fund, which underwrites the lion's share of the country's expenditure, has divided opinion, with some saying the step is necessary to maintain current levels of development spending and others calling the move risky.

From 1975 to 1999, Timor-Leste was ruled by the Indonesian army, which frequently confiscated land and forcibly relocated communities to break up resistance networks. When Timor-Leste achieved independence in 1999, most of the land was occupied without official title deeds.

A cornerstone of the government's development plan is a promise to electrify every home in Timor-Leste within just a few years. But communities living in the shadow of the power plant supposed to jumpstart this transformation know little or nothing about its impact.

Some 180,000 people in Timor-Leste were killed during the Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999. More than a decade after Timor-Leste achieved independence from its much more powerful neighbour, accountability for the mass crimes of Indonesia remains contentious.

Babies are plentiful in Timor Leste - almost seven per woman on average - and so too are health problems in a country where chronic malnutrition is rampant and access to effective healthcare remains a luxury.